The act of making identical reproductions of something, whether physical documents, digital files, or behaviors. It involves creating duplicates that match the original as closely as possible.
From Old French 'copie' and Latin 'copia' meaning 'abundance' or 'plenty,' originally referring to having plenty of something to transcribe. The meaning evolved from manual transcription of texts to modern mechanical and digital duplication processes.
Before photocopiers, 'copying' meant painstakingly writing out documents by hand - medieval monks spent entire lifetimes copying single books! The invention of carbon paper in the 1800s was revolutionary, but it still required retyping everything, making modern copy machines seem almost magical in comparison.
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